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A 16-year-old Hockley, Texas, girl had to make a choice after finding out she was pregnant in
January. She could keep her baby or appease her parents.

The teen said her mother and father threatened her and were trying to coerce her into having an
abortion, according to court records.

After weeks of tearful fighting, the girl took a dramatic step: She sued her parents.

“There were times when she was in tears,” the unborn child’s father said this week about the
coercion and the decision to file a lawsuit. “It was hard on her and me.”

He said the girl’s parents were threatening to “make her life miserable” until she got an
abortion.

The recently filed lawsuit ended on Monday with an agreement that the teen’s parents would not
use physical force or psychological coercion. They also agreed to pay half of the hospital bill if
the girl has not married when the baby is delivered and let her use her car.

“She wanted to have this child without coercion, and she got that,” said Stephen Casey, one of
the teen’s attorneys.

Casey and other attorneys with the Texas Center for the Defense of Life represented the
teenager. This is the fourth lawsuit the organization has filed in the state on behalf of teens who
are being coerced to have abortions, said Gregory Terra, president of the group. In one other, the
case ended with a similar agreed order. In the other two, the group lost its fight.

After Monday’s hearing, Jared Woodfill, an attorney appointed to protect the pregnant teen’s
rights, said minors filing for emancipation, to be treated as legal adults, are much more common
than lawsuits pitting child against parent.

“It takes a lot of courage for a teen to stand up and sue their parents,” Woodfill said.

The girl’s parents did not talk to reporters outside the courtroom on Monday.

The pregnant teen also did not comment after the ruling. The father, who also is 16, said he
plans to marry his girlfriend and raise the child.